Professor Matthew Kirschenbaum Appointed to Chair of the Board of Directors of SHARP

The appointment to a leadership role in SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) brings visibility to the department’s support of BookLab and other initiatives

Professor Matthew Kirschenbaum has been appointed as the Chair of the Board of Directors of SHARP (the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing). The position begins immediately and will go through 2023.

Founded in 1992, SHARP is an international scholarly society devoted to the study of the book (broadly conceived) in all its cultural and material diversity, including new digital media. SHARP holds annual international membership conferences and publishes the quarterly journal Book History with JHUP. The Board of Directors operates in an oversight and advisory capacity with regard to the President and Executive Council, helping to steward and steer all aspects of the organization's operations.

Professor Kirschenbaum remarked, “I hope this leadership role brings additional visibility to our department's support of initiatives like BookLab and our other faculty working in multiple aspects of book history, media studies, material literary culture.”